Putin's Cousin Earned $95,000 Every Day in 2016

Kremlin Press Service

President Vladimir Putin’s cousin, estimated to be worth worth $573 million, reportedly earned nearly $100,000 per day last year.

A recent investigation revealed Mikhail Shelomov to be a part of Putin’s inner circle which has amassed almost $24 billion. Shelomov, 49, is the son of the president’s cousin who earns an official salary of $700 per month at a state oil firm.

The opposition news channel Dozhd TV on Thursday said it used financial statements from three companies where Shelomov owns 99.99 percent of the shares to calculate that the companies earned a net profit of 2.04 billion rubles ($35 million) in 2016.

Dozhd TV then divided the figure by 365 calendar days to arrive at 5.59 million rubles, or $95,000 per day including weekends.

Last week, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta published findings that estimate Putin’s family and friends — and not state company executives or politicians — are worth almost $24 billion.

Members of Putin’s inner circle were implicated in a $2 billion money-laundering scheme after the 2016 large-scale document leak known as the Panama Papers. Putin’s own private wealth has previously been estimated to be as high as $200 billion.